Guilt & Shame

Shame... What is shame? What is guilt? Most importantly, how do they contrast? By definition, shame is "a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior." Guilt is "the fact of having committed a specified or implied offense or crime." They both are similar, but the difference is extremely important to remember. To put it simply, shame is admitting to yourself that there is something wrong with you, while guilt is admitting to yourself that you have done something wrong. So, where does that put you? Which one of those states is deadly? With guilt, you recognize you are in a cycle, and that you have invested your passion in something that will not fulfill you, and that "something" is ungodly.  With this knowledge, you can try to break out of this circle. Well, really what you are doing is humbling yourself and relying on God to pull you out. Your dignity and pride are broken and you recognize that, "I can't do this on my own."  With shame, your dignity is broken, but you cling to your pride. Even if you don't realize it. You see, what you are doing is putting yourself in that cycle and staying in that cycle. You are saying, "I am already a bad person, I might as well  keep on this path." Don't get me wrong this is an easy mentality to slip into. However, you must realize that if you think that there is no hope of getting out of this cycle you are saying that God cannot help you out. That there is no hope. But there is hope. If you are already with God, you cannot fall from him... It's called Perseverance of the Saints.